Bringing Back Bluebell
by pointerfinger
Summary: A brutal breakup in the city has Lillian looking for refuge in Bluebell, a small ranching community, only she mainly ends up grieving her former relationship in solitude. One year later and she's over it. Wanting to make long overdue introductions in Bluebell, Lillian finds that most of the town moved to Konohana due to the lack of vegetables produced. Can she get her town back?
1. 1

I could not believe I had single-handedly destroyed a town in a year. A town whose mayor I didn't even know the name of!

"There was no room to grow vegetables here, so Rutger went over to Konohana. It was pretty pointless, I bet even you know how much Ina and Rutger hate eachother!" The young man chuckled after he said this, his shaggy gold hair shaking with every heave.

I cringed at him. "Uh… who's Ina?" I ask guiltily.

He gawked at me suddenly, and continued laughing just as suddenly. The man gave me a light slap on my shoulder, something I'm sure he wasn't expecting to be so awkward from his seat on a wooden counter. "You almost had me there, Lillian!"

I frowned at the spot where he hit me and wondered how he knew my name, I didn't know his. That wasn't very shocking. My first year in Bluebell was a bit of a mess. Could you blame me? I grew up in the city and I knew nothing else. My best friends were there, my family too. Bluebell just didn't feel like home. Totally ironic when I think about it. I came to this small town for a change. There's so many people in the city, it's impossible not to meet your best friend, just as it's impossible not to meet the guy that will break your heart. Maybe the fresh air will clear my mind, I thought. I always complained that the city air was too dirty for anyone to properly breathe. Farming sounds new, exciting, and different. I could meet people and learn something. This will be good for me. Wishful thinking of course, when I had finished my farm work I holed up in my small cottage, usually talking on the phone with my old friends or reading. Sometimes crying, or eating too much junk food. Sometimes both. Slowly, but steadily, I returned to I think is normalcy. Guys always had this power over me. It's a total problem and it left me wondering who I am, just… alone. Boring, I guess. People came to the farm at first, introducing themselves and giving me details about Bluebell, inviting me out. I gave them polite smiles and false hope, but what I really wanted at that moment, I remember, was to be alone. Eventually they stopped coming and I only left my farmland to buy seeds for my soil and feed for my cow. I bet most people forgot I even lived in this town.

Now I'm here, spring 1st, one year exactly since I arrived in Bluebell. I woke up this morning, ready to introduce the 'new' me to the world. Instead I was met by an irritatingly happy man who informed me that most of Bluebell had moved to another town called Konohana due to a lack of vegetables. Vegetables I selfishly only grew for myself or sold to the city. I don't think oops even begins to cover it.

"I'm Ash, if I haven't told you yet. Yeah, my mom and sister, Cheryl, used to live here with me. They would watch the counter while I would take care of the animals out back." Ash jerked his thumb to an open window and I could see the cows and sheep grazing.

"They left after most of us moved away. There was nobody to buy anything anymore. I stayed back to watch the animals, it was too much hassle to take all of them at once. Every weekend I take a couple over the mountain to Konohana. The only people left of us Bluebell folk is Rutger, I guess it would look kind of bad if our own mayor left, Rose, Rutger's wife, and me and my animals." Ash gave me a bright smile, absolutely unfitting in this situation.

"So, let me get this straight." I rubbed my eyes and was grateful for the blackness for few seconds. "All those buildings, those homes, they're empty?"

Ash nodded.

"Because there was no vegetables for them to eat?"

Ash nodded.

"Vegetables that I was supposed to grow for them?"

Ash nodded, thought about it, and then vigorously shook his head, knocking his maroon cap off center.

"Don't worry though, nobody blames you! Well… not everyone. Honestly I wasn't even sure if you existed, I never saw you around. I heard rumors about you though, apparently a lot of people thought you were a witch or a crazy because you never left your house. I remember Rutger was telling me and Cam, my best friend, he lives in Konohana now, which suits him since he sells flowers and Konohana is known for being a great place to grow crops. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, Rutger told us that you were so gloomy when he first showed you the farm. Yeah, so most of us blame Konohana, funny that most of us live there now since they are the only close town with food to eat. They used to ship us crops before you came, but Ina and Rutger got in this huge argument at the cooking festival. Ina seemed mad, but not starve-us-out-of-Bluebell mad." Ash gasped for a breath. "…Wow, sorry about that. I've been spending a lot more time alone than I'm used to. It's nice to talk to someone besides my livestock, is what I'm trying to say."

I don't much care for ramblings, but I did sort of ruin his life so I smiled and told him it's okay. An idea formed in my mind. I stared at Ash, this goofy guy, and I wondered… could we do it? "Ash…"

He hopped down from his perch on the counter. "Hm?"

I cleared my throat and felt exhilaration tremble through me for the first time in a long while. "What do you say? You and I, we bring Bluebell back to life?"

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **THANKS FOR READING! LEAVE A REVIEW OR DON'T! ALWAYS APPRECIATED THOUGH! :D**_

 _ **I wanted to write a comeback-kid sorta story and this popped into my head... not sure if it's a good idea or not. :')**_


	2. 2

_Bringing Back Bluebell_ : Chapter 2

"I mean it's a nice gesture Lillian, but kind of impossible." Ash gave me a small shrug. "Come with me for a second."

I followed him out his home's door and we walked into Bluebell's deserted town square.

"There, do you see that?" He pointed over brick buildings into the distance.

I followed his finger and saw only a beautiful spring sky with a mountain bordering the horizon. "Oh… yeah? No. No, wait what am I looking for?"

"That mountain. Do you know how difficult it was for people to move their whole lives over to Konohana? There is no way they would come back to Bluebell, even if you had a horde of vegetables. Sorry Lillian, but there is just no way… well… we do have that old tunnel… but no, no that would never work." Ash shook his head at me and crossed his arms.

"Tunnel, what tunnel?" I asked.

"There used to be a tunnel connecting Bluebell and Konohana. Legend is the Harvest Goddess closed the tunnel when the towns began fighting as punishment. If we somehow got the tunnel open again I bet everyone would come back."

I raised an eyebrow at Ash. "We?"

He smiled with nonchalance. "Sure, I'll help you. I liked Bluebell before this whole ordeal. It was home."

Together we stare at the intimidating mountain in silence.

"So, how would we get that tunnel open?"

Ash thought for a moment. "It would be complicated and definitely not easy. There used to be a woman that lived here, Eileen, she did a lot of the construction in Bluebell. She's over in Konohana now. We'll have to get her to rebuild the tunnel."

"Alright… so we've got to climb that mountain then?"

Ash playfully grinned at me. "Not exactly."

-x-x-x-

I eyed the fat brown pony with doubt. "He can climb that mountain?"

Ash scoffed at me. "Lillian! Never judge a book by its cover! Butterball here is a purebred!"

"And you know how to ride a horse?"

"I deal with animals on the daily." Ash assured me.

We walked Butterball to the base of the mountain. Ash took a seat on Butterball and patted the place behind him.

"You can't be serious." I told him. Frankly, Butterball looked like he was on his last legs and I wasn't about to kill a horse the same day I found out I killed a town.

"Very! Grady gave him to me when he left; he told me he'd keep me company. He said Butterball had the strongest legs out of all the horses back in the day." Ash explained and gave the horse a proud pet on the head.

I sighed; it would beat walking up that killer mountain for sure. "Alright, fine, fine."

-x-x-x-

Ash helped me up onto Butterball.

"Now hold on tight!" He warned me.

I wrapped my hands around his waist and waited. Ash gave Butterball a small tap. We didn't move an inch. A slightly harder kick. Butterball only neighed. Ash turned toward me and gave me a sheepish look.

"I thought you said you rode him over the mountain?"

"No, no I walk with my animals when we go to Konohana, you know, to show solidarity! And… I don't really know how to ride a horse."

I gave the rancher a look I'm sure you could imagine.

Ash returned with a cheerful beam.

I slid back onto the ground and he followed suit. Ash stretched his arms towards the sky. "Worth a shot, but what are we going to do now? Walk?" He questioned me.

I ignored him and pulled myself onto the front of Butterball. I patted the seat behind me.

"Lillian, I just don't think he's going to budge." Said Ash.

Again, I patted the seat. Ash sighed and climbed up. I whispered some words of encouragement into Butterball's ear and gave him a sharp kick. Miraculously, the chubby animal began a slow trot.

"Lillian!" Ash cried. "You did it!"

"I did!" I yelled back, a small smile creeping its way onto my mouth.

Ash folded his hands around my waist.

I looked down at them and turned around. "Seriously?" I questioned him.

"What? It's really steep!"

-x-x-x-

We had been riding for about an hour when we arrived in Konohana. Ash talked along the way, mostly asking me questions about the city, which I didn't really feel like answering. He kept making me stop Butterball, something I'm sure that horse welcomed, so he could pet the wild animals living in the mountain. It was annoying at first, but they were pretty cute, I liked the panda we saw along the way, I'll begrudgingly admit.

Konohana differed from my expectations. It was a small rural town tucked into the valley of the mountain. The Asian styled homes and blossoming trees made me feel like I had been swept to another world. People were bustling around, definitely overcrowded.

"Konohana is busier nowadays than what it was. Most of Bluebell stays in Town Hall over there. Cheryl says that the one thing she likes about living here is that there are actually kids her age to play with. I'm glad. I think she got a little lonely in Bluebell." Ash led me through the town.

It seemed like we couldn't walk more than ten feet without someone stopping to chat. This Ash guy sure was popular. What took me back was how many people knew me. This past year I was sure I made the least amount of human contact possible. How was it that when Ash mentioned I was a farmer people knew greeted me by name? Bluebell was gossiping about me.

Ash stopped, smiled, and shouted. "Cam! Yo Cam!"

A stony-faced looking man squinted and looked around the billboard he was pinning a paper on. He gave a slight smile at Ash, nodded, and approached us.

"What are you doing here? It's not a weekend." Asked the serious man as he and Ash gave one another a quick embrace.

Ash gave a soft touch to my shoulder. "Lillian and I need to talk to Eileen."

It was a nice gesture and all, but I really don't like people touching me. I smiled politely at Ash's friend. "I'm Lillian."

He looked at Ash, then to me again. "The farmer?"

Ash grinned. "That's right!"

The friend looked stunned. "Wow, well… it's nice to finally meet you. I'm Cam."

Cam? Cam… Cam… Ash told me about him. Best friend! The florist in Bluebell.

"This is weird. I never thought I'd actually ever meet you. What were you doing that whole time when you were supposed to be farming for our town?" Cam demanded.

I wasted no time in apologizing. "I am honestly so sorry. I didn't know what had happened to Bluebell until this morning actually. If I had known that there were no vegetables I would have…"

I trailed off when I noticed the sly look Cam was giving a giggling Ash.

"You're kidding." I said to Cam in relief.

He smiled back. "Just a little joke. You need to talk to Eileen?"

"We have a plan. We're going to rebuild the tunnel between Konohana and Bluebell." Ash answered him. "We want to get Bluebell back to normal."

Cam nodded along to Ash's words. "Well, tell me how it goes."

He said goodbye to Cam and me and went back to the billboard.

"Yeah, that my best friend. What a guy am I right?"

I eyed the proud Ash with aversion. "Sure. Now, can we finally talk to Eileen please?"

My request breaks Ash's longing admiration filled stares at Cam.

"Oh, yeah, yeah! Come on!"

-x-x-x-

Eileen looked like how you would expect an intelligent, capable woman to look, confident and a bit intimidating. I loved her. She captured exactly what I aspired to be.

"I'm sorry guys." Eileen apologized. "I would love to help you, I really would, but Ina is mayor and I don't know if she would want to help out Rutger anytime soon."

"No Eileen. We understand. It's not up to you." Assured Ash. "Come on Lillian, we should go."

Ash rose from the cushion he was seated at. We found the builder in Yun's Tea House, the only restaurant in Konohana.

"Thank you Eileen." I told the woman.

She nodded at me curtly, but with a warm smile spread on her lips.

I left with Ash.

"What a bust." I grumble at the ground.

It seems about right. Something that actually motivates me is impossible. I think the universe wants me to be sad forever.

"Tell me about it." Ash grunted back. He turned to me with regretful eyes. "I'm sorry Lillian, I thought this would work. This problem is a bit harder to solve than I expected it to be."

I told Ash not to worry. He's a pretty nice guy. I felt bad for dragging him into this.

"Is there any way to get those mayors to get along?"

Ash stared at the ground and returned with an idea. "Lillian! The cooking festival!"

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **THANKS FOR READING! LEAVE A REVIEW IF YOU WANT :)**_

 _ **StarshipFarm Thanks for the review and support! :D**_


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